Awareness: Time To Wake Up!

On one day in March, the Trump administration fired half of the Department of Education. One thousand three hundred employees, many with decades of experience and advanced degrees, came into work on a Tuesday morning, were told to leave early, and were fired by email that night.

Except that wasn’t the end of the story. 

A federal judge put a hold on the layoffs, and workers were left in limbo until the Supreme Court approved the firings last week.

Not Just Workers, but All American are Suffering, and Time to Wake Up!

Fired. Not fired. Laid off, forced to retire, asked to come back. Government workers have been jerked around like puppets on a string by the Trump administration – and not only are the workers and their families suffering, but the American people are also suffering.

What happens when expertise is discarded, departments are hollowed out, and essential functions of government are crippled? 

275,000 Employees Target for Layoffs

Since January, more than 275,000 employees have been targeted for layoffs by Trump’s DOGE and other reductions in force, and the administration has already been able to fire more than 128,000 of them.

But the confusion surrounding these layoffs and their legality is causing ongoing problems. 

Denied Retirement and Unemployment Benefits

Employees are being denied early retirement or unemployment benefits that were promised to them because the Trump administration doesn’t file the right paperwork or didn’t file it at all. They’ve received no information for how to apply for insurance benefits.

We’re all feeling the impact of these firings, as critical agencies like Social Security, FEMA, and the National Weather Service are now understaffed.

I write this because too many of us are asleep at the wheel while this democracy is on life support. To be silent is to be complicit. Kristi Noem—who delayed responding to the devastating Texas floods for two days while posing for press photos—now leads ICE. ICE is now the country’s largest federal law enforcement agency, bigger than the FBI, bigger than the DEA.

Not Political, but Fact Base

This is not a political article—it is a fact-based editorial. Politics often divides, but the truth should unite us. I believe it’s up to us—the everyday citizens who aren’t worried about losing a government seat, money, or perceived power—to speak out on behalf of all our fellow Americans, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender identity

Time to wake up! Will you join me in saving this democracy?